Even The Straggled Shoot
by sturmgalan
Summary: AU. Kyo is born a sickly boy. Nevertheless, he's still a Kusanagi, and still a fighter. Kyo-centered, possible eventual Iori/Kyo.


Ahaha, so this is sort of a side. thing that I will work on when I am in the mood for it/going AUGH HETALIA, AUGH. I dunno, I sort of need to reread the manga and then play the storylines again if I want to continue this.

In any case! Have an AU where Kyo was born sickly. Because I could. (Possibly eventual Iori/Kyo? I'm a fairly gen writer, but.)

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><p><strong>o1.<strong>

Kusanagi Kyo recognizes early on that there had been expectations of him, from before birth, that had disappeared once he _had _been born. He thinks, he'll never be his father, but young as he is, he's determined to carry on the Kusanagi family arts. Practices his footwork, his bare feet digging into the earth softened by the morning dews, and only relents when he starts coughing fit to burst.

His mom is disapproving, but like his father had said once, he _likes _it, the martial arts. It's fun, even if he'll never be his father. But he's a Kusanagi man (or boy, as it is) too, and if there's one thing he can do, it's push himself to his limits until they're not his limits at all. He lost the impression his father was humouring him when he wouldn't even quit after six months, a year, and now he moves through the basics one by one.

But when the flame appears, his father takes him aside.

"No way to avoid it," his father is saying to his mom, and Kyo waits for his mom to stop looking irritated to sidle into his father's room. Here, his father turns to him, and when Kyo looks down, there is a book in his father's hand. "Kyo, what do you know about our family history?"

Kyo, nine years old, bites his lips and thinks. Is he supposed to know something? "The Kusanagi style of ancient martial arts is an old and established school, only taught to people in the family?" he ventures, mimicking someone whose face he no longer remembered. His dad cracks a grin at this, before shaking his head and sobering.

"Listen closely Kyo, and remember, this is important. About six hundred years ago, a man from the Kusanagi clan defeated the monster Orochi with the help of the Yasakani clan..."

It was a story that had been passed down generation after generation. Kyo's general opinion of it, really, had been that it was _stupid_- after all, who cared what happened however many hundreds of years ago, anyway? But then his father's voice, sharp, brought him back to attention. "Kyo! Listen. I'm telling you this because the Yagami bloodline is still alive. It's regrettable, but you have to be careful."

Kyo nods, eager to get back to training. He has _fire_ now to add to his repertoire. "I'll be careful!" he says, and then he waits just long enough for his parents to acknowledge he has said so before he goes running off. He thinks, if he combines _this_ move with a burst of fire _there_-

His parents watch his retreating back, and make note to watch their only son even more carefully than before.

...

_Oh no, _Kyo thinks, and then the flames in his palms sputter out even as he doubles over coughing. Stupid body, with its stupid weakness. He's been getting better at least, he thinks; he can last longer and longer without a fit. If he can last long enough for a full fight, that's all he needs. If he can be strong enough and finish things quickly, that would be all the better. He's been slowly developing his muscles, and developing his flames. Maybe he can still become like his father after all.

He's practicing at the outskirts of the neighborhood park, trying to get away from the _girl_. He thinks he wouldn't mind Yuki-chan so much if she didn't keep fussing over him like his mom sometimes still did. Yuki-chan probably wouldn't get why he liked fighting so much either, so he keeps it a secret from her and hopes that the more smug he is, the less she'll bug him. _He's just getting to that age,_ his mother likes to say, and he rolls his eyes at _that _and makes plenty blatant what he thinks of the comment. Geez, he's not a kid afraid of cooties or anything. Yuki-chan just worries too much. It's restrictive.

It takes awhile for him to notice someone watching him, but when he does, he turns around. It's a red-headed boy, the angriest he's ever seen. Which is funny, because the boy looks about his age, thirteen, but the boy's eyebrows are dipped low and almost glaring. The boy probably _is _glaring at him, though Kyo can't figure out why. So he asks with a smirk, "You want something with me?"

The boy unfolds from a squatting position, and when he stands, he's taller than Kyo by enough to be obvious. It kind of pisses Kyo off, and he cocks his head, waiting for an answer for the boy. But the boy only asks him, states it more like, "You're the Kusanagi heir."

It isn't what he had been expecting, and he drops the arrogance for a moment in favor of confusion. "Yes?"

Kyo's hackles are raised when the boy only snorts and turns his back to him, walking away. "At least tell me who you are, bastard!" Kyo calls out, and that brings the boy's steps to a stop.

"You don't know?"

"How the hell would I know? This is the first time I've met you."

Kyo is still indignant when the boy begins laughing, and even if it's the first time they've met he can still tell that it's a strange sight. "Ask your parents," the boy says to him, and while Kyo mutters _'like hell' _under his breath, the boy has left the park entirely.

...

That night, Kyo spends his time considering the boy's words. Ask his _parents_? Maybe that meant the boy was a family friend then, or some distant relative, but he's pretty sure he's been introduced to every one of those. Laying back on his bed, he thinks about the boy's strange red hair, and the fact that he didn't know how long the other had been watching him.

Ask mom and dad, Kyo thinks again, and the revelation comes like a brick to the head. _Yagami_, and he'd thought for forever that the clan feud had nothing to do with him. Well, it looked like it had come looking for him now.

Something stirs within him, fire or just excitement at the lure of a challenge. Maybe he'll get a serious fight out of the boy, because he can tell now that his cousins, even his dad tries to go easy on him. He hates it. He's not a sick boy.

(_Well_, a voice in the back of his head goes, _you are a sick boy_, but he tells himself determinedly it's something he can conquer.)

But someone of the Yagami family - _he'd _fight with him seriously, wouldn't he?

He'd _have_ to.

.

**To be continued.**

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><p>Erm. Crits, please? (aka please tell me why I shouldn't write things when I'm not intimately familiar with the canon, and how to fix my writing?) Thank you! m(_ _)m<p> 


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